Until recently, most of Tania Ventura’s internet shopping experience was based around books ordered over Amazon.

But she’s now well past browsing for her favourite authors. Tania used her laptop to buy a house in a province she’s never been to.

From Toronto, Ont., she researched Cochrane, Alta., and purchased, at the pre-construction phase, a home through Excel Homes. It’s in Heartland, a master-planned community by Apex Land.

Along with Excel, builders in Heartland currently include Jayman Built and Birchwood Properties, with Sterling Homes and Rohit Communities slated to join in the near future.

Prior to driving 45,000 kilometres over five days to pull into the heritage town just west of Calgary, Ventura had not seen her house or the new town in which she was about to put down roots.

She made the move with her father, Eustachio Ventura, and two children, AJ, 4, and Tiffany, 2.

Did Cochrane match the picture she had in mind during her evenings of Googling the town?

“No, it was more than I had expected,” Tania says. “I do not have enough eyes to look around.

“I just can’t get over the hills, mountains, and trees. It’s just breath-taking.”

Before moving to Toronto, she had lived in Montreal and the Udine area of northeastern Italy.

Tania is a teacher who has been hired to work at St. John XXIII school in northeast Calgary, but even before finding work in the area, she committed to the move west.

She looked into smaller centres near Calgary and says, “Cochrane just struck me.” This is when hunting for a new home, four provinces away, began.

While she admits to being nervous about the process, she wouldn’t make the move without being both prepared and well-informed.

“My father was a civil engineer, and he was reading with me this whole thing about Excel Homes, and was, like, ‘Tania, you have to go with them,’ ” she says. “So we started doing more research about Excel Homes and were just impressed. I told myself, I can’t just get on an airplane and fly to Calgary to see the process of the building of the house or signing any papers. With two young children and an elderly father, it wasn’t an option.”

So it would be done long-distance. Consistent contact, including emailed photos of her home under construction, helped create a positive experience, Tania says.

“It was so transparent,” she says of both Excel’s sales team in Heartland and customer experience manager Michelle Rogers. “They were fantastic with me because they kept giving me all the information.”

The show home parade in Heartland by Apex Land.Supplied /
Calgary Herald

Since the family was still in Toronto when it was time to complete the standard walk-through of their home, Tania and the builder went about things in a non-traditional way. With Michelle Rogers using a smart phone and Tania on her laptop, the walk-through was completed through Skype.

“I’m not technological in any way. Everything I have crashes on me,” she says, laughing.

But it worked.

They even looped in Tania’s brother living in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“I kept asking (Michelle Rogers) little things, like, could you show me what’s in front of my house? I didn’t even know what was in front of my house.

“As soon as Michelle opened the front door of the house, I was just so astonished. From the week before when she sent me pictures, to actually virtually walking into my house, it was very surreal to me.”

For Excel Homes, this was a first, and “we were happy to do it,” says Rogers.

“It was exciting because you were able to include them. You were able to make them feel like they’re there, even though they’re not,” she says.

“It worked really well,” Rogers adds. “I was surprised that it was as smooth as it was. Technology is definitely moving in the right direction so you can have situations like this.”

She says, as along as the buyer finds a reputable builder to work with, the long-distance purchase is something that can be done successfully.

“It was like a puzzle and all the pieces fit together,” Tania adds.

She bought Excel’s Halton floor plan, an 1,824-square foot home with a front-attached, two-car garage.

“Structurally and space-wise, this is exactly what I needed,” Tania says. “It’s one thing, looking at it on paper. I started (visually fitting my belongings) on a piece of paper. But when I walked in, I thought there is more space than I actually anticipated.

“And my backyard, I never thought I was going to have a backyard as big as I do right now. It’s fantastic for bringing up two rambunctious children like I have here and for my father to just relax and enjoy his days. It’s a good place.”

The day they arrived in Cochrane, it was raining. But Tania says it reminded her of an Italian proverb that means “when it rains on your wedding day, the bride has good fortune.”

“To me, when I arrived in Cochrane, even though it was raining, I think it brought me good luck.”

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